Ex-VR boss says resignation not sparked by suspicion of crime

Tapio Simos says he read about allegations in newspaper

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Tapio Simos, who unexpectedly announced his resignation as CEO of VR Ltd. on Monday, denies that suspicions of criminal activity raised against him had anything to do with his decision to leave the railway company.
      He also denies any involvement in a crime. In his own words he was not aware that he was suspected of anything, until he read about it in the late edition tabloid Iltalehti.
      “The police have not been in touch with me”, he says.
     
A criminal complaint against Simos was filed with the Päijät-Häme police in early July. Arto Mölsä of the police says that Simos is one of three suspects in the case involving assault, defamation of character, violation of domestic peace, and violation of privacy.
      The crimes allegedly took place between December 2008 and May 2009.
      However, Mölsä says that the investigating officer in the case is on holiday, and that the investigative material is under lock and key. Mölsä could not say if Simos himself was a suspect in all of the crimes, or only some of them.
      Iltalehti wrote that the victim of the alleged crimes, who also filed the complaints, is a woman whom Simos knows personally.
     
Simos says he does not know who might be behind the criminal complaint.
      “Completely unfounded information and unfounded allegations: I don’t know where this kind of thing could have emerged.”
      Simos, the CEO of VR Ltd., which deals with passenger and freight traffic for the railway operator VR Group, gave no reason when he announced his decision to resign on Monday.
      Mikael Aro, newly appointed as President and CEO of VR Group, says that VR and Simos had agreed that only Simos himself would comment on the reasons for the resignation. Aro said then that he had hoped that Simos would have stayed in his post.
      On Wednesday Simos told Helsingin Sanomat that the reasons for his departure were work-related.
      “Along the way my job description would have changed in such a way that responsibilities would have been reduced... I made my own decisions then. Now I’m looking at the world and having a bit of a holiday.”
      Mikael Aro said on Wednesday to Helsingin Sanomat that he was not aware of the suspicions raised against Simos. He also did not want to comment on the reasons for his resignation.
      “I cannot speculate. He is the person who knows why he resigned.”
     
Previously Aro had said that an idea had been put forward at VR to split rail freight transport and passenger transport into two separate companies.
      This means that Simos’s VR Ltd. would have been split in two.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Unexpected resignation at state-owned railway company (11.8.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat